[Lake Forest] [Japanese] Sushi Wazen

Sushi Wazen
22641 Lake Forest Dr
Lake Forest, CA 92630
(949) 855-8330

We returned to Sushi Wazen on Thursday night.  It was our 3rd visit.  The restaurant was a lot busier on that night than our previous 2 visits.



Nobu san remembered our name!  We sat at the table because the sushi bar was full.




Another really pretty placemat.  Service was extremely slow on that day.  Sushi Wazen is pretty much a 1 person operation restaurant.  So when it's busy, expect to wait for the food.  We actually waited for 40 minutes before our first dish arrived.


Miso Soup & Salad

We ordered a combo dinner to share, along with a few more sushi and roll.  The combo came with miso soup and salad.  Even though both were complimentary items, they both tasted like high quality dishes.


Roll Combination Dinner ($9.50)

We picked Spicy Yellowtail Roll and Tempura for our Roll Combination Dinner.


Spicy Yellowtail Roll

Spicy Yellowtail Roll tasted good.  But the Nobu san didn't make the roll as pretty and nice as last time.  The roll looked almost... sloppy.  I think he was so busy that he made everything in a hurry on that day.


Tempura (2 Shrimps and 5 Veges)

Tempura was light and not too oily.  I like the variety of vegetables, especially the sweet potato and okra.


Japanese Rice

The combo came with white rice or Japanese rice.  When the waitress asked for my choice, I had no idea what Japanese rice is.  I thought it was just different rice grain.  But it turned out to be rice with Japanese mushroom.  It was super delicious.  I could eat this bowl of rice by itself.


Edamame

Our waitress forgot to give us the complimentary edamame.  So when she finally remembered, she gave us a huge plate.


Albacore Sushi ($3.00) / Spanish Mackerel Sushi ($4.25) / Fatty Tuna Sushi ($6.50)

We asked for Nobu san's recommendation for sushi, and he recommended these three, Albacore, Spanish Mackerel, and Fatty Tuna.


Fatty Tuna Sushi ($6.50)

Fatty Tuna seriously just melt in my mouth.  It was too good!


Spanish Mackerel Sushi ($4.25)

Spanish Mackerel Sushi tasted really fresh.  Fish always tasted sweet to me when it's really fresh.


Albacore Sushi ($3.00)

Albacore Sushi looked good, but it had a fishy aftertaste that I didn't like.


Sea Urchin Sushi ($5.25)

We ordered the Sea Urchin sushi the regular way, without the lemon juice and sea salt like last time.  Uni was fresh and tasted really good.


Ceviche Roll ($9.00)
Citrus-marinated Sashimi

Ceviche Roll sounded really interesting so we wanted to try it.  It was made with vegetable rolls topped with citrus marinated assorted sashimi.



There were salmon, albacore, halibut, clam, and scallop.  The sashimi was super tasty.  The vegetable roll had avocado, asparagus, carrot, and cucumber.  Perfect combination!


Duck Breast ($9.50)

Dr. P really liked the duck breast in the Foie Gras, which we ordered last time.  So he got one order of the duck breast this time.  It came with a little mayo and mustard.  The duck beast was cooked medium and served cold.  Yum!



Once again, we really enjoyed the food at Sushi Wazen.  But on that day, our dining experience wasn't all that great.  There were some really loud people at the sushi bar.  They were drinking, talking and laughing loud, taking in their language really really loud.  I think they are Cambodian or Thai?  The girl even took off her shoes, and put her feet on the chair with her legs wide open.  I mean.... why do you want to do that in a restaurant?



Our dinner lasted 2.5 hours.  Now school has started, a lot of UCI students returned to the area.  Sushi Wazen was too busy (and slow) for us on Thursday night.  Maybe we'll switch our sushi night to a Tuesday.

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